Monday, 27 August 2012

Peter Chan, of the Christian Centre for Gambling Rehabilitation in King’s Cross

RECOVERING gambling addicts this week joined activists calling on the government to toughen up gaming laws that will restrict the soaring number of betting shops.

Members of the Chinese community, who say their lives have been ruined by gambling, added their voices to a campaign being orchestrated by figures including Peter Chan of the Christian Centre for Gambling Rehabilitation in King’s Cross.

The sufferers, who agreed to speak to the Tribune, told of how they had lost a fortune in betting shops and casinos.

Their intervention comes as the government examines whether to amend new legislation brought in by the previous Labour administration, which has allowed large numbers of bookies to open up in areas including Archway.

In a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary screened last week, Labour’s deputy leader Harriet Harman admitted that her party had been “wrong” to liberalise gaming legislation – a move which has allowed increasing numbers of betting shops to open on the high street.

Members of the Chinatown Gambling Concern Group, which believes Chinese people are particularly vulnerable to getting into debt through gambling, wants a consultation being run by the Department for Communities and Local Government to result in more obstacles being placed in the path of companies wishing to open new betting shops.

If Casinos and Betting shops are the only social option for Chinese who feel left out from mainstream British Culture, and a lack of strong British Chinese leadership cannot provide a better social alternative for our community , then is the Christian religion the only solution for addicted Chinese gamblers?

Sunday, 26 August 2012

In a four-part BBC Two Series - 'Exploring China A Culinary Adventure,' Ken Hom and Ching He Huang rendezvous across China on a R&D mission to discover if there are any 'authentic' Chinese dishes that they haven't yet appropriated for their corporate culinary empires in the west. Its an easy task for Mandarin speaking charm school graduate Ching He Huang as she entices the local Mainland Chinese to open up their kitchens for the cameras - unaware these two corporate goons will purloin their secrets to shore up their already bulging balance sheets.

The programme's hidden word is authenticity, only an authentic Chinese chef can provide an insight into authentic Chinese cuisine, but who could be less authentic than South African raised Ching He Huang, who arrived in Britain at the age of 11, she makes a remarkable admission in the programme that as a teenager Chinese culture was so unappealing that she wanted to dye her hair to blend in with her White peers, it was her mothers love of Chinese food that reconnected her to her Chinese heritage. Ching hasn't quite shed her white fever, her partner is blanched Eurasian Jamie Cho, clearly Ching likes a bit of White in her as a reminder of the good old days.

In previous cooking shows, Ching He Huang Chinese Food in Minutes and Chinese Food Made Easy, her trademark is an irresistible compulsion to crunch wise old Grandma tales of Chinese emperors and their concubines into her exoticised dishes, titillating the White audiences taste buds for the mystical orient.

Ching He Huang's incurable oriental proverbial tourettes overpowers her..."Don't waste rice, each grain of rice is like a bead of sweat." She should save some lines for her next series - 'Chinese Folklore Made Easy.'

And Uncle Ken's homecoming? Throughout the series Ken Hom has looked overwhelmed by the whole mainland Chinese experience, its almost a quarter of a century since he last visited the mainland, he has lost touch with China and looks awkward relying on Ching to translate Mandarin to English, rumour has it that Ken's highly secretive long term unmarried partner of 37 years is in fact a gay man, maybe a presenter and locality swap replacing Ching He Huang with Gok Wan, China with Thailand, would be more appropriate. Gok Wan and Ken Hom Gayventuring, man-flirting their way across Thailand reporting on the culinary skills of Pattaya ladyboys would be a ratings thriller.

Overlooking the overplayed dung-dung-ding-a-ling-ling music and the unnecessary use of English subtitles for the 'broken Engrish' speaking chef, Exploring China: A Culinary Adventure reminds me of 'Gorillas In The Mist,' Ching and Ken are primatologists from the west exploring creatures that are genetically similar to themselves lurking in the jungles and villages of the orient, only to find these feral creatures and their cultures similar, endearing and human, if you could stir fry the National Geographic Channel into a wok, this programme would be the outcome.

Tuesday, 14 August 2012

Bad Education is a BBC3 sitcom written by Jack Whitehall, set in Abbey Grove School, a fictional state secondary school overrun with puerile predictable yawn-festing caricatures - the draconian deputy headmistress, the dexterously challenged teacher and the delinquent school children. Comatosed by this worthless piece of impoverished white-centric 'comedy' writing, any eye twitching interest is limited to the racist portrayal of Chinese student Jing played by Kae Alexander.

Racially humiliating the Chinese for the pleasure of generating cheap laughs for the White audience is considered ironic cutting edge British comedy. Bad Education's Facebook fan base (predominantly White, some Black) were highly amused by the Sinophobia...'that was so funny!'

It begs a question, why do British East Asian actors continually play these racially debilitating roles? Is she blonde? 'She's Chinese you muppet!' Really? With a 'Chinese' name like 'Kae Alexander,' we shouldn't really be surprised by the actions of these white-loving anglicized Asians, should we? (Bad Education Review by BBCZeitgeist)

Unperturbed, Kenneth Tong boasted to The Sun newspaper, 'People will know my name and that’s all that matters...My tweets aren’t offensive to the point where they are illegal. I’m not worried about the police coming to my door. I have the best legal team.'

Kenneth Tong, a Hong Konger, claimed to be a millionaire playboy when he first appeared as a late contestant on Big Brother (Series 10) as the psychopathic boyfriend of Karly Ashworth, he quit the show after being reprimanded for threatening Rebecca 'Bea' Hamill. Although his 15 minutes of fame expired three years ago, Kenneth has remained in the public eye by trolling the internet.

In 2011, he faced death threats after launching a pro-anorexia campaign on Twitter. His tweets included: “Don’t let the fat masses oppress you from your goals. You deserve a skinny body” and “To be thinner, skip dinner." After complaints by Rihanna and thousands of other Twitter users, Tong declared the campaign was a hoax, claiming it was a dare to prove he could become a trending topic on Twitter.

BBCZeitgeist Commentary: British Chinese that have encountered racial abuse in the UK will know that if a White person is offended by a Chinese person (even if the offending Chinese has not referred to the White persons race or nor his/her racial characteristics), the White person instinctively retaliates with Sinophobic racism. Examining the Twitter backlash against Kenneth Tong, whilst the majority of tweets have refrained from racial insults (perhaps the precedence of the Stan Collymore case acts as a deterrent), others have reacted more instinctively...